A biographical history of eminent and self-made men of the state of Indiana : with many portrait-illustrations on steel, engraved expressly for this work, Volume II, Part 41

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Cincinnati, Ohio : Western Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1006

USA > Indiana > A biographical history of eminent and self-made men of the state of Indiana : with many portrait-illustrations on steel, engraved expressly for this work, Volume II > Part 41

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took deck passage at Pittsburgh for Cincinnati. Reach- ing the latter place, then a village, he shouldered his pack and pushed out on foot through the dense wilder- ness, a distance of one hundred and seventy miles, and in the spring of 1833 he reached the point where Waveland, Montgomery County, now stands, and where he was destined to pass many years of his life. Here he found his elder brother engaged as a merchant, keeping what was known as a "general store." He took a position as salesman at Crawfordsville, but re- fused to continue in the situation, as it involved the sale of whisky at the same time ; and this was at a time when total abstainers were few and far between. He next filled a similar position with his brother three years, and, establishing a character for ability and integrity, he formed à mercantile partnership in 1836, at the age of twenty-two, but in 1839 he returned to his brother, and continued business with him until 1844, varying his business as merchant by pork-packing, and floating the products to New Orleans in flat-boats, making a full hand himself on two of these trips, which, for the time, seriously impaired his health. From 1844 until 1855 he devoted himself to trade, either alone or in connection with others. From 1855 to 1860 he invested largely in lands, and now owns some five thousand acres, of which two thousand are under cultivation. In 1869, for business reasons, and for the better education of his son and daughter, Mr. Milligan removed to Crawfordsville, leaving his mer- cantile business to the management of his associates. He has taken considerable interest in public improve- ments; was the first president of the Logansport, Crawfordsville and South-western Railroad, and was active in its organization. In 1864 he became the nominee of the Republican party in Montgomery for state Senator, and was elected, standing at the head of the ticket, after a most exciting and fiercely contested campaign. He is at present one of the trustees of Wabash College and its auditor, and also a trustee of Waveland Collegiate Institute. Mr. Milligan was married, April 6, 1846, to Miss Jane M. Hawkins, daughter of Colonel William G. Hawkins, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for six years president of the Pennsylvania state Senate. Of this marriage there are no living children. He married Miss Harriet N. Fullenwider, daughter of a prosperous farmer re- siding near Waveland, September 14, 1853. Two chil- dren have blessed this union : Harry J., who graduated at Wabash College in 1873, at the age of nineteen, and is now a rising young lawyer engaged in practice at Indianapolis ; and Anna A., a sprightly miss of four- teen. Mr. Milligan is an elder in the Center Presby- terian Church, of which his wife is also a member. He now resides in his suburban home, and devotes his time to the management of his landed estate, and en-

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joying the fruits of a busy life. Coming to Mont- gomery County ten years after the county seat was laid out, he has done his full share in developing its re- sources. He forms his opinions with great deliberation and adheres to them rigidly. He is conscientious in his views and acts, and is honored and respected by all who know him, as one who has helped largely to give character and tone to the society in which he has moved.

CKEEN, WILLIAM RILEY, banker, etc., of Terre Haute, was born in Vigo County, Indiana, October 12, 1829. His father, Benjamin Mc- Keen, was one of the early settlers of Vigo County. His mother's maiden name was Leathy Pad- dock. His parents were in ordinary circumstances, and William obtained in the district schools of the county the rudiments of his education, which was supple- mented by a term at Asbury University, Greencastle, in 1848. Ill-health, however, compelled him to give up his studies, and his subsequent education was obtained wholly by self-culture. Up to the age of eighteen his school life was alternated with work on his father's farm. In the spring of 1846 he came to Terre Haute, and entered the county clerk's office as assistant, Charles T. Noble being then clerk. This was his first experi- ence in business life, and he soon became thoroughly familiarized with the details of office work, and in Feb- ruary, 1848, he was offered and accepted the position of bookkeeper in the State Bank of Indiana. After serv- ing for four years in that capacity, and proving himself in every way diligent and efficient, in 1852 he was elected to the more responsible position of cashier. He had by this time not only gained the confidence and esteem of all who came in contact with him, but had succeeded in acquiring considerable means; and in 1855 he engaged in private banking, in company with Mr. Ralph Tousey. This connection continued until IS58, when Mr. Tousey retired, and Mr. McKeen continued the business alone until 1863. He then became con- nected with Mr. Demas Deming, and until 1868 they conducted the banking business under the firm name of McKeen & Deming. On Mr. Deming's retirement to fill the position of president of the First National Bank of Terre Haute, Mr. McKeen became associated with Mr. Deloss W. Minshall, and for several years the bank of McKeen & Minshall was one of the best known and most highly trusted institutions in the state. Since Mr. Minshall's retirement from active business in 1876, the firm has been conducted under the name of McKeen & Co. Mr. McKeen owns a controlling interest, although, on account of the pressing claims of other enterprises upon his attention, he is principally represented in its management by his oldest son. Mr. McKeen is perhaps | & Co. March 3, 1857, Mr. McKeen married Miss Ann

better known from his connection-either as prime mover or auxiliary-with various railroad enterprises centering in Terre Haute than in any other capacity. He took an active interest in the Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railroad from its inception; was for several years a director; and in June, 1867, was elected president, retain- ing that position up to the present time. This railroad has the reputation of being one of the best managed roads in the West, and has always paid dividends on its stock, never having had to suffer the too common mis- fortune of passing into the hands of a. receiver. In July, 1870, the Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railroad became lessee of the Vandalia Line, and the joint man- agement of the roads is in the hands of Mr. McKeen. He is also president of what is known as the Belt Rail- road of Indianapolis, director in the Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad, and of the Evansville, Terre Haute and Chicago Railroad. Few enterprises of pub- lic utility in the city of Terre Haute have been con- ceived or consummated in which Mr. McKeen has not taken an active interest, and almost always a leading part. To him, in concert with a few others whose names can be found in our volume, the city of Terre Haute owes much of its present prosperity, and his funds were contributed liberally to most of her pub- lic works. He was an active, energetic, and liberal supporter of the movement which culminated in the establishment of the State Normal School at this point, and he has filled the position of treasurer of the board since its organization. At the inception of the Terre Haute Gas Light Company he was elected treasurer, and retained that position until recently. He is still a director of the company. He also took an active inter- est in the completion of the city water-works and sim- ilar enterprises. He has been several times a member of the city council of Terre Haute, and, though not an active politician, is pronouncedly Republican in princi- ples. In 1861 the state of Indiana lacked funds to pay the interest on her state debt, and, on an appeal from Governor Morton, Mr. McKeen responded by advancing a loan of ten thousand dollars to the state. In 1863 he was appointed by Governor Morton a member of the Sinking Fund Commission, and retained that office until a change in the school legislation of the state abolished the commission. In 1876 he was appointed by Governor Williams a member of the Board of State-house Com- missioners, charged with the supervision of the building of the new state-house. This position he resigned, after holding it about six months. At present Mr. McKeen's time and attention are taken up principally with his duties in connection with his railroad affairs. Mr. McKeen was married, in 1852, to Miss Eliza Johnston, of Terre Haute. She died December 25, 1855, leaving one son, now the junior member of the banking firm of McKeen

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F. Crawford, a daughter of Samuel Crawford, Esq., | teacher's vocation-a change not contemplated till a second president of the Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railroad. By this marriage he has three sons and three daughters, all of whom are living. We can not close this sketch without paying a tribute to Mr. Mc- Keen's private character, which will be readily indorsed by all who know him or have come into contact with him. Generous to a fault, his hand is always ready to contribute to worthy and benevolent objects; accessible alike to rich and poor, all are treated in the same spirit, and the tale of deserving poverty never fails to enlist his hearty sympathies and gain prompt assistance. He is a man without pretense, without any of that super- ciliousness which wealth too often assumes when brought into contact with poverty. Essentially a self-made man, although not a public man in the political sense, he is "a man of the people," and his name is honored and his character esteemed wherever known. Citizens of Terre Haute point to him with pride, as a representa- tive of industry and enterprise and a gentleman of spot- less integrity of character.

ILLS, PROFESSOR CALEB, of Crawfordsville, the youngest son of Caleb and Tamar (Cheney) Mills, was born July 27, 1806, in Dunbarton, a small rural town of New Hampshire, whose name indicates the nationality of its early settlers. He be- longs to the fourth generation of a stalwart Scotch-Irish family who emigrated from the north of Ireland to the na- tive forests of the Granite State and settled in the town of Londonderry, named in memory of the one from which most of the colony came. He was reared on a farm --- where were cultivated those habits of industry and econ- omy and that hearty sympathy with labor which have so prominently characterized his subsequent life-and worked there until he was sixteen years of age. During these years he attended the schools of his native town, whose annual period was divided into two unequal sec- tions of six and twelve weeks. He had access to a cir- culating library of about two hundred choice volumes, a good share of which he read in his intervals of labor and the long winter evenings. He entered Dartmouth College in 1824, and graduated in 1828. He spent a portion of the two subsequent years in a Sabbath-school agency in the valley of the Mississippi, principally in the two states of Indiana and Tennessee, and then en- tered Andover Theological Seminary. Having com- pleted his course at that institution, he married Sarah Marshall, of his native town, a pupil of Mary Lyon, and came to Indiana, where he entered on his life's work December 3, 1833. An appointment to take charge of an academic institution, designed as an initiative to a college, turned him aside from a ministerial to a

short time before finishing his theological studies. This programme subsequently brought him into co-operative connection with those early and sterling educators of the past, Doctors Baldwin and White-the first two presidents of Wabash College-and Professors E. O. Hovey and J. S. Thompson. The founding of a college in a new country is no holiday enterprise, involving, as it does, labor, sacrifice, with inadequate compensation, un- known to their successors in the advanced stages of its his- tory. In 1846 he commenced a novel effort to aid the cause of popular education. It was no other than an ad- dress to the Legislature in the style of an executive docu- ment, outlining an improved system of public schools, showing its wisdom, necessity, and feasibility, through the columns of newspapers, a copy of which was laid on each member's desk, signed, "One of the People." It was ex- tensively read, and awakened such an interest as to sug- gest the idea of a supplementary discussion the next year under the same signature. Thus, what was origi- nally intended as a simple and single address to the legislative body and their constituency on this sub- ject proved but the first of a series of six annual appeals through a like channel. Three of these documents were also published in pamphlet form; one of them at the author's expense, another by the self-prompted liberality of a friend of education, and the third and last by the Legislature, which or- dered an edition of five thousand copies for general circulation. The fifth of these documents was addressed to the Constitutional Convention, instead of to the Leg- islature of that year. This educational Junius was not detected for five years. The effect, both immediate and more remote, of these consecutive appeals may be traced in no slight degree in the present system of common schools in Indiana; and their author has lived to see all his suggestions relative to its financial, supervisory, training, and internal features carried into statutory op- erations, illustrating the wisdom and practical character of not a few of them which on first announcement were deemed visionary. These labors probably led to his election as State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1854. This office evidently sought him rather than he the office, from the response made to one who inquired whether he would accept the nomination if made : " Let the people of Indiana say by their votes that they desire my services, and I will consider it my duty to render them the service sought." He made three re- ports to the Legislature, and those documents exhibit the character and extent of his labors as a public officer. In 1857 he resumed an active connection with Wabash College-for his relation to it was simply suspended, not dissolved, by his election as Superintendent of Public Instruction-and returned to his former position as professor of Greek. On reaching his seventieth year

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he resigned that chair, and has since (1879) been in charge both of the custody and enlargement of the college library, which has been enriched with the means for valuable growth. Ten thousand volumes have been added to it since he entered on his last mission of life, still leaving funds for a like enlarge- ment. In 1852 the President of the United States honored him with the appointment of Visitor to West Point for Indiana. His war record was that of sterling patriotism, his services as chaplain having been offered to Governor Morton, and those of his only son at the age of seventeen. His views of rebellion and the proper treatment of the prominent leaders and sympathizers were based on God's method of disposing of treason, traitors, and sympathizers, detailed in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Numbers. He respectfully de- clined the honorary degrees conferred upon him by his Alma Mater and another college. He is now spending a comparatively green old age in a sphere of labor evi- dently of great congeniality with his tastes and useful- ness to the institution.

INSHALL, DELOSS W., a prominent citizen of Terre Haute, Vigo County, was born in Frank- lin County, Pennsylvania, November 8, 1828. His father, Robert Minshall, was also a Penn- sylvanian by birth; his mother, Lucy, whose maiden name was Nymocks, was born in Westfield, Massachu- setts. Both parents were of pure English extraction. His early years were passed in his native state, and he obtained a fair education in the public and private schools of Chambersburg, which he attended until his fourteenth year. At this age he left school and com- menced to study the great problem of life in the busy world outside, his first occupation being that of clerk in a store at Chambersburg. After a novitiate of six years in business life there, he concluded to follow the human stream steadily flowing westward and seek his fortune in the then " far west." This was in the year 1848, and in October of that year he found himself drifted to a little town on the Wabash River, which he concluded was far enough west for him, and made up his mind to settle there. A position obtained as clerk in a dry-goods store confirmed his resolve, and he soon found himself at home among the citizens of Terre Haute. In 1853 he had made such progress as to ac- quire an interest in the business, and soon afterwards became full partner. In 1860 he commenced to engage in trade on his own account, and prosecuted it with much success until 1866, when he was elected president of the First National Bank, and disposed of his business to take his place in that institution. Long before this his name had become known as that of one whose con-

summate ability and remarkable powers of execution were a guarantee of success to any enterprise he engaged in, and his management of the bank was no exception to this rule. After two years of prosperity he resigned his place and united with Mr. W. R. McKeen in estab- lishing the banking house of McKeen & Minshall, the principal management of its affairs devolving upon the latter. Signal success attended the enterprise, and in a short time this financial institution became well known, reaching and maintaining a very high position. It trans- acted the largest business of that kind in the neighbor- hood, and was in every way successful. In 1877 Mr. Minshall, wearied by thirty-five years of continuous business life, and having accumulated a comfort- able fortune, disposed of his interest in the bank, and since then has devoted his attention principally to his private affairs. The old adage of a man being without honor in his own country is a singular misapplication in the case of the subject of this sketch. During his residence of more than thirty years in the city of Terre Haute, Mr. Minshall's name has been identified almost without exception with every undertaking calculated to foster the growth of the city and improve the condition of its citizens, both in public improvements of which all classes alike reap the benefit, and in the promotion of industries which furnish employment to many and stimulate the business energies of the people. His means and influence have been always freely used in these directions, and in their conduct he has often been found the leading spirit. He was influential in the movement to secure the location of the State Normal School at Terre Haute, an institution second to none of its class in the West; and took an active interest in the formation of the company which introduced the Holly system of water-works in the city ; an enterprise of which her citizens are justly proud, and from which they reap most material benefits, not only obtaining a never-failing supply of water for general use, but a most adequate protection in case of fire. Mr. Minshall still holds the office of secretary in this com- pany. He has also been prominently connected with such manufacturing interests as the rolling-mill, blast furnace, nail works, etc., etc., which furnish employ- ment to a great number of persons, and in most of which he has been at some time a director. Political prefer- ment he consistently eschews, and he has held no posi- tion of political importance, with the exception of a few years' membership in the city council. Although hav- ing labored under the disadvantage of a comparatively short period of instruction in his youth, he is a gentle- man of high culture, and is possessed of a rare intelli- gence and extensive information upon all topics. He is an extensive reader, and has a cultivated literary taste, the emanations from his pen bearing all the marks of the graceful writer and scholarly thinker. In business

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matters he is sagacious, prompt, diligent, and thorough. Not a shadow of suspicion has ever rested upon his in- tegrity. Socially, he is a quick-witted, genial, and intelligent companion, and in his domestic relations he is a model husband and father, his home life affording rare pleasure to those who have witnessed its purity and cheerfulness, He was married, April 2, 1856, to Miss Sarah J. Seibert, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Their family consists of two children, a son and daughter.

EBEKER, GEORGE, of Fountain County, son of Lucas and Hannah (Morris) Nebeker, was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, August 20, 1813. His father was of German parentage, his immediate ancestry having emigrated from Germany more than a century ago, and settled near Wilmington, Delaware. Lucas Nebeker subsequently came to Western Pennsyl- vania, and was identified with the famous "whisky boys," as they were termed, who took part in the in- surrection arising from a tax on liquors of domestic manufacture in the time of Washington's administra- tion. He moved to Pickaway County soon after the Indian troubles were ended. Here he was married, in ISO1, to Hannah Morris, whose father and two brothers had settled in the same neighborhood about the year 1797. Here also the subject of this sketch first saw the light, and here he lived until eleven years of age, ac- quiring previous to this the rudiments of an education. There he received nearly all the schooling that fell to his share; adding to this the self-culture of reading and study, and the benefit to be derived from the best associations of pioneer times. In 1824 his father re- moved with his family to Indiana and settled in Foun- tain County. He was a Methodist class-leader, and bishops and preachers, as well as governors and other celebrities, were entertained frequently at his hospitable home in pioneer times, when hotels were few and scantily supplied. His father, Lucas Nebeker, was active in assisting in the first civil organization in this section and was elected one of the two first Associate Judges of Fountain County, and was on the bench when John Richardson was sentenced to be hung for the murder of his wife-the only capital punishment ever inflicted in the county-and entered his protest against the verdict of the jury, on the ground of the prisoner's insanity. The experience of the early life of George was that of toiling on the farm, with a strong desire uppermost in his mind for a college education. At first his father encouraged this idea, but, probably seeing in his son the material for a good agriculturist, finally decided against the college advantages by re- minding the young man that "a farmer is higher on his feet than a gentleman is on his knees," which the son

accepted as a gentle hint that in the professional field he might not succeed. Although the principal business of Mr. Nebeker has been that of a farmer, he has filled many positions of trust, honor, and profit, while he has never forsaken the pleasant farm-home near Covington, where he has resided for nearly half a century, and reared his family. For a period of fifteen consecutive years, from 1845 to 1860, he acted as Justice of the Peace. In 1862 Mr. Nebeker was appointed collector of internal revenue for Fountain County, and collected the first dollar in that locality with which to pay the Union soldiers. In the year 1863 he was appointed by the general government commissioner of the board of enrollment, and, with two associates, was stationed at Lafayette, having charge of the military of the Eighth Congressional District, serving in this capacity until the close of the war. Mr. Nebeker has always been a friend to public improvements, and assisted in the con- struction of the Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western Railway, acting as director for the company until its foreclosure in bankruptcy. He was elected president of the Attica and Terre Haute Railroad Company, the road being afterward consolidated and merged into the Chicago and Danville Railroad. Owing partly to the fact that as Mr. Nebeker educated his sons, four in number, at the best universities, they seemed to lose taste for the labors of the farm, he went into the bank- ing business, and is now president of the Farmers' Bank, in Covington (a private bank), and is also president of the First National Bank of Attica. Residing at a point between the two towns, he is enabled to preside over both institutions. In 1846 Mr. Nebeker joined the Odd-fellows, but soon took a final card and severed his connection with that order. In 1859 he was initiated into the order of Free- masons, Fountain Lodge, No. 60, in Covington ; and is now a member of Crawfordsville Commandery, No. 25, Knight Templars, having taken all the intermediate degrees, and filled important offices in the order. From the organization of the party Mr. Nebeker has been a sincere and earnest Republican, believing that although it is not entirely without fault it is the best political party ever organized in this or any other country. He has always taken an active inter- est in its success, attending nearly all its important meetings and conventions; assisted in securing the nomination of Abraham Lincoln, at Chicago, in 1860, and was a delegate to the national convention, at Phil- adelphia, which nominated General Grant for Pres- ident, in 1872. In his religion he is a decided Armin- ian, believing in the brotherhood of man, but does not profess to understand or believe in the extremely emotional or spasmodic evidences of religion. On De- cember 27, 1832, at the early age of nineteen years, Mr. Nebeker was married to Miss Mary Steely, the daugh-

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A biographical history of eminent and self-made men of the state of Indiana : with many portrait-illustrations on steel, engraved expressly for this work, Volume II, Part 41

Author: Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Cincinnati, Ohio : Western Biographical Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1006

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Cincinnati, Ohio : Western Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1006